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The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has debunked insinuations that it received money from former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, as the $2.1 million arms fund controversy escalates.

Highlights

NGE President Garba Deen Muhammad made the clarification on behalf of the Guild

Mahammad said the money received from former president Goodluck Jonathan was 50 million naira donated towards the building of the Editors Plaza

He declared that neither Femi Adesina, former president of the Guild and current media adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, nor any other official of the body collected cash from the government

Thisday publisher and Chairman of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Nduka Obaigbena, had suggested in a letter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that the NGE collected N50 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser

Details

NGE President, Garba Deen Muhammad, declared in a statement released on Wednesday that it was necessary to clarify the circumstances surrounding the 50 million naira the Guild received from former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Muhammad said the NGE had on April 10, 2015, held a fundraising dinner at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, to raise N850m for the construction of a befitting secretariat in Abuja, to be called The Editors Plaza.

“It was a public event, attended by several dignitaries among them federal cabinet ministers, state governors and captains of industry or their representatives,” said the NGE president.

“Former President Goodluck Jonathan was invited to the event at which he was represented by the former Minister of Information and National Orientation Mr. Labaran Maku.

The United Nations has launched a probe into fresh allegations that its peacekeepers sexually abused four minor girls in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), according to the UN spokesman.

Highlights

The UN has asked the countries whose troops were allegedly involved in the abuse to investigate

The nearly 11,000-strong MINUSCA, set up in 2014, has been hit by a series of claims of sexual abuse by the peacekeepers

Such claims pushed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to remove the mission chief last year

Details

The UN mission in CAR, known as MINUSCA, said that it received the claims on Monday and has asked the countries whose troops were allegedly involved in the abuse to investigate.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said UNICEF is working with a local partner to help the girls receive medical and psycho-social care. The four victims were also provided with clothes, shoes and hygiene kits.